His breathing was ragged and echoed in the dim hallway as he ran, his feet surprisingly light given his size. The underground base shook with another explosion and he placed a hand on the wall to balance himself before running again.

The sounds of optic blasts, lighting and the unmistakable smell of ice still met his senses even though he was travelling below the surface, leaving his team-mates to fight the military bastards and round up the lab tech’s up top. He knew they were perfectly cappella of holding their own, they were the distraction, and he was the mission.

A lab tech loyal to the professor had given them inside information as well as a security swipe card. So far the card had worked on the perfectly, letting him through all the security doors and check points without detection, and even into the first set of prisoner cells he had come across.

There were only six cells in the large holding area, as he walked through he was overwhelmed the stench of death. Each cell held a deceased person and even though he knew they were dead, he had to check them. In tern opening the cells, rolling the body over, checking their pulse and then in tern finding something to cover the bodies over, giving them a least a little dignity back to them. In he last cell, he rolled the small female body over and was met by a familiar face. Jubilee. Gently closing her eyes he pulled a blanket over her and left the room, there was nothing he could do for her now, but he could try and save her best friend.

At the end of the dark sterile hospital looking corridor was a large metal door, he read the words EXPERIMENTAL UNIT with a growl. Using the swipe card again, he swiped it four times. Each time the red admission light never changed to green and allowed him access. Security overrides must have been put in place in case of a rescue attempt. Another growl and the hallway echoed with the distinctive sound of metal claws springing free and then sinking into the control panel, he flinched away slight at the sparks.

Wolverine smirked as the red light blinked to green and the door slid open. He wrinkled his nose at the horrible medical smell that haunted his dreams. Eight glass cells lined the walls, four on each side, seven were empty.

The farthest one to the right held one person, alone, clad only in a pair of tattered leggings and a tank top.

They had found the place two weeks ago, he had wanted to storm in straight away, but the others had convinced him that they needed to gather intel, get an insiders help, get maps and security codes, he had reluctantly agreed.

Now as he looked at her sat with her back to the wall, her bruised and scraped knees brought up to her chest, held tightly against her by her thin arms that also were heavily bruised and scratched, he knew he shouldn’t have waited a single second longer.

Her hair had been hacked short just below her ears, but you could still see the white bolt at the front and it made the paleness of her skin stand out even more. He couldn’t see her face, she had her head resting on the tops of her knees.

For a moment or two he was simply stunned, starring at her, watching her breath, then he seemed to wake up and searched the sides of the glass for a way in. Not wanting to simply shatter the glass as it might cut her and by the looks of it she had suffered enough.

He found another swipe-card terminal and ripped the top panel off with a snarl, then he effectively, ‘hot-wired’ the terminal and the glass panel slid into the floor. Then he smashed the panel, just to make sure it didn’t shut the cell again.

Slowly entering the small space so as not to scare her he crouched in front of her and touched the top of her head lightly. He could tell from the smell of her that she wasn’t asleep, she knew he was there and she was scared. Thick, rich smell of fear radiated off of her and he hated it, only just managing to suppress a growl.

When she raised her head to look at him he wanted to growl again and then rip apart every being in this god forsaken place. Her bottom lip was almost black with a bruise and was split heavily on one corner. Her left eye was blackened, there was a two-inch gash on the top of her forehead that had been stitched badly, it would probably scar and the entire right side of her face was purple and yellow, a sick combination of new and old bruises. Whoever had beaten her favoured the back of his right hand, Wolverine made a mental note to find him and cut it off, then watch him bleed to death, very, very slowly.

“Lets get you outta here darlin’.”

She let him pull her up by her elbows, he noticed that she didn’t seem surprised or pleased to see him, just plain scared. He turned them towards the door, but she wouldn’t turn her back to him. “I won’t tell you anything.”

He frowned. “Baby you don’t have to, I just want to take you home.”

Stroking her hair gently, he smiled at the feel of it, thanking god it was still soft, still Marie, but his distraction was short lived and he was rewarded with a sudden pain. She brought her knee up and planted it squarely in his groin, then she pushed as hard as she could sending him sprawling on his ass and hitting his head on the back of the cell.

She crossed to the other side of the room and quickly rummaged through the top drawer of a desk that was there. By the time he was on his feet she was pointing a small revolver at him.

He looked at the gun as her hand shook and then back to her eyes raising his hands to try and calm her. “Put it down. We need to move, I hear soldiers everywhere, it won’t be long before they get down here.”

“I wont tell you anything.” He watched her shake her head in defiance and realised that she wasn’t just on the edge of her sanity, but dangling off by her fingernails.

“Darlin’, its me, just calm down.” Chancing a step towards her, he stopped when she cocked the gun, knowing that even though it wouldn’t kill him, if she was accurate enough the delay it would take him to heal could get her killed.

“No it’s not! I’M NOT STUPID! It didn’t work the first time you tried it, comin’ in here as Scott, come to ‘rescue’ me, didn’t work with Jubilee, Kitty or Storm either. Damn stupid bastards, giving me drugs to make me think the world was bright pink if you wanted me too, well I WONT, not this time! You picked the wrong person to try, ‘cause I know him… inside and out and…”

“Good, then you’ll know I’m real, you’ll know its me!”

She seemed oblivious to the fact that it was really him, so sure, so convinced that *he* wouldn’t be there in front of her. “I wont ever stop fighting, I wont ever give in. I wont ever give you the X-Men, you’ll have to kill me first.”

“Damn it kid, no one is going to hurt you anymore, I just want to take you home.” He took another step towards her, but she lowered the gun a fraction and fired, hitting him just above the knee. His leg buckled under him and he cried out. “GOD DAMN IT MARIE!” As he grimaced with the pain of his tissue knitting back together, he had a thought. “You see, I know your real name, Marie Anne D’Ancanto, only I know that!”

She smiled, a cold smile that he knew was one he had given her. “Pleasssssse! You bastards showed me a file an inch thick, you know more about me than I do.”

Standing up slowly and wincing as the last pains in his leg faded away. “Ok, so how about I tell you about me, you’re the only one that knows, the only one that gives a shit.”

He smelt her anger flare just before another bullet ripped through him, this time his left shoulder, glass shattered behind him as the bullet ricocheted off of his metal bones and through his back. Falling to his knees, she was in front of him keeping the gun wedged in his throat.

“You will never know anything about him because you’re nothing but a cheap imitation! You’re not my Logan!”

Having enough of being shot and being able to pick up distant voices of trouble approaching, his temper snapped. He grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back, she dropped the gun and tried to hit him with the other but he caught it and held her hand to his face. “Then why don’t you turn on the perfect skin and take a look? Let me show you who I am, what you mean to me.”

She shook her head and let out a sob. “You know I can’t, the drugs… they stop it, you know this, why are you torturing me like this, I’d rather you just beat me some more!”

Letting her head fall forward onto his bloodied shoulder she cried and he began to whisper to her. “You’re the only one that knows me. You know I hate broccoli and that I love sprouts. You know I like that music you play sometimes, Nina Moan or some shit like that. You know I secretly quite like Scott, respect him even tough I play the bad-ass with him. You’re the only person in the whole world I’ve ever told about my secret cabin in the rockies.

“*You* know I don’t sleep for more that three hours at a time because of my nightmares and you know what each and everyone of those nightmares are, the worst one being that night on the Stature, but in my dream I’m too late and I loose you. You’re the only one I let see me upset, the only one I’ve ever let watch me cage fight.

“The only person whose ever heard me sing is you, you’re the only girl I’ve ever danced with, the only women whose ever spent the whole night in my bed.” She raised her head to look at him. “And I know what happened fours years ago on your eightieth birthday. After your party I found you in tears on your bathroom floor. You cried and cried and finally told me that you hated yourself, because you had no control and that no one would ever love you, touch you, make love to you or even kiss you. You were scared it would be like that for the rest of your life. Scared you’d be alone. I kissed you, over and over, made love to you right there on the fucking floor and then again in the shower, using my clothes and condoms to protect me. I didn’t take your virginity, you gave it me, with all your heart. Afterwards you told me I’d given you your confidence back, you said you knew we were only friends and that’s how it should be, nothing more and you thanked me for being the best friend you’d ever have.”

He rested his forehead to her and closed his eyes tightly shit. “What I never told you was I didn’t do it because I was your friend, I did it because I love you, I always have, ever since that shitty bar in Canada. I love you Marie, your scent, your hair, and your skin. I love the stupid faces you make when someone gives you food you don’t like or the way your eyes light up when I mention taking the bike instead of the truck, I even love the way you steal my cigars thinking I wont notice. I love you.”

“Logan…?” She searched his face.

“Yeah dalin’, Logan.”

She sobbed on him even more. “Oh God Logan!” He let go of bother wrists and she clung to him as he buried both his hands in her hair and held onto her, suddenly she stiffened and pulled away. “Oh God, I shot you!”

“Yeah, ya did darlin’. Twice!” He couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

“Fuck. Logan…. I’m so sorry, I…”

“Forget it. Lets just say you owe me one, or two.”

He held her face in his hands and kissed her. “I love you too, my birthday was the best night of my life, I never forget it, every kiss, every touch, I remember it all. I was just so sure you were simply being my friend and giving me what you thought I wanted.”

“It was all you, everything will always be for you, I love you.” He kissed her again and then she smiled at him. “Now can we leave?”

“You’ll get no more augment from me sugar!” He stood up and went to pick her up into his arms. “No, I walked in, I wanna walk out.”

“That’s my girl, come on.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and help her move towards the exit and the waiting jet, full of their friends. He knew that telling her about Jubes would be hard, but they would get through it all together. Now that he’d found her, he wasn’t ever letting her go.

END